Monday, December 22, 2014

Hello everyone, only 3 more days till Christmas! Are you ready? Are you excited?! I am here today to show you another fabulous image release by The Paper Nest Dolls. Christine Paperdolls is the designer behind these cute images, and I am so blessed to be on her team :)

Winter Friends, Penguin Edition by The Paper Nest Dolls

These rubber stamp images are so sweet and fun to color up. I just want to sit down and color all of them! Christine usually releases new images every month and I know the December ones are super special!

Winter Friends, Penguin Edition by The Paper Nest Dolls

This red-haired beauty and her little friend have been colored in my all-time favorite medium: Prismacolor Premiere pencils, in the following colors:

You can see all of Christine's wonderful rubber stamp images on her online shop here. And please remember to join us at the challenge blog for the bi-weekly challenge. Enter a project, Anything Goes!, and be eligible to win a prize package from The Paper Nest Dolls!

Friday, December 19, 2014

Hello and I hope you are staying safe and warm this wintery season! It's starting to get pretty cold up here in Northwestern Ontario, but luckily, I have a warm house :)

Noelle sent me my very first Magnolia stamp! And to be truthful, I wasn't a fan of Magnolia stamps before now. There was just something about them that I wasn't sure about, but now that I've colored one, I have fallen in love. Cue the new obsession, lol, and I totally blame Noelle for this ;)

In The Snow Heart Tilda by Magnolia

In The Snow Heart Tilda by Magnolia

I colored this cutie with my Prismacolor Pencils (of course :) ):

Skin: PC927, 939, 1029

Hat/Mitts: PC1068, 1072, 1083, 1076

Shoes: PC997, 1082, 1099, 935, 1060, 1065, 1059, 1067

Shirt: PC1019, 1017, 1029, 1078

Pants: PC901, 1027, 1022

Hair: PC1082, 942, 914

Snow: PC1059

I also used my Wink of Stella Clear glitter pen to add sparkle to the snow, and drops of snow white embossing powder to create falling snow.

Monday, December 15, 2014

Hello everyone, and wow, we are getting closer to Christmas everyday! Are you ready? I am close, but not quite...still have a few things to do, but the house is decorated, and most of the gifts are bought and wrapped :)

One more week till the kiddies are out on Christmas break in these parts, and that means I am too! I say, let's kick off this week with a special Holiday blog hop with Quick Creations! The DT members have worked hard to bring you loads of Holiday inspiration, and if you leave a comment on all of the blogs, as well as the Quick Creations blog, you have a chance to win some goodies!

With that said, here's my piece. I was asked to use this image from The Paper Nest Dolls: Christmas Fairy Ellie.

Christmas Fairy Ellie by The Paper Nest Dolls

I colored Ellie with my Lyra Rembrandt Polycolors in the following colors:

I colored this sweet girl on vellum and I was so pleased with it, that I thought...why put it on just a card? I want her to be kept and cherished for a long time! So, I decided to put her in a shadow box frame, and I am so glad I did!

Lullaby Whimsy Stamp designed by Sylvia Zet

I colored her with my Prismacolor pencils (my absolute favorite medium!) in the following colors:

Quick Creations has a plethora of rubber stamps from all kinds of different companies, including Whimsy, Magnolia, The Paper Nest Dolls, All Dressed Up, CC Designs, and Kraftin' Kimmie, just to name a few!
Also over on the Quick Creations blog, there are monthly challenges, and December's challenge is Jingle Bells! Use the lyrics or an image of a bell in your creation, how easy is that! Come on over and join us here.

Friday, December 5, 2014

Hello everyone, I have a special post for you today! Polkadoodles has tasked us with something very special for December. The challenges this month (only) will be changed to our Secret Santa Special! We (DT) have been given a secret recipient, whom we must make a card for, and you must guess who its for! Each of us has another DT member to design a special Christmas card for, and I am going to give you 4 clues as to who my special recipient is. If you have come here from the Polkadoodles Challenge blog, you would have received the first of 5 clues already :) If you haven't been there yet, you really do need to back there :P

Ok, I'll stop teasing you.....but first let me tell you what happens when you pick the right name :)

One lucky winner will receive a digi image over and above the normal challenge prize. A random DT blog will be chosen and then a commentator from that blog will then be picked as the winner of a fab Polka Doodles digi image. So don't forget to visit all the DT and see if you can guess who has made for whom to be in with a chance to win,. All the details you need are on the main Polka Doodles challenge blog. You have up to Thursday 18th December (midnight GMT) to enter and the winners will be announced on Friday 19th December (GMT).So, here are my clues:1. She lives between Liverpool and Manchester....and yes, that is in the UK :P2. The name of her blog really leaves us wondering (maybe we'll have to ask her how she came up with it!)3. In 2008 she wrote 39 blog posts. Great job!and.....last but not least...4. She and I have more than just coloring in common. (Yes, this is a tough one, and you'll have to check out a bit more around my blog to find out what it is...hehe)Good luck! I'll see you back here on December 18th!Please remember to visit all of the DT blogs as well as the Polkadoodles Challenge blog!

Monday, December 1, 2014

My post for Quick Creations this week is a really fun one :) Noelle asked me to use the Greetings Fairy from Tiddly Inks, and Heidi Swapp's Dreamy 6 x 6 papers.

Greetings Fairy from Tiddly Inks

As you can see, the Heidi Swapp papers and the image fit together perfectly! I was really unsure of what to do with this little fairy to start with. She doesn't fit into my usual modus operandi, lol. But after watching some videos on Youtube (love YT), I decided to try my Stampin' Write markers from Stampin' Up, and used them as watercolors but instead of a waterbrush (cuz I don't have one yet) I used my brand new Wink of Stella Clear Gold glitter pen. Worked like a charm! I have a limited amount of Stampin'Write markers, so I was stuck with only a few colors, but I think it worked out well. This is definitely a technique I will attempt again, however, I do need to get more colors :P

Monday, November 24, 2014

I found myself really struggling with some personal challenges this month, and in giving my sweet sister this advice on her new endeavor, I found that this advice also pertains to me. Whatever you are struggling with, remind yourself that "You got this!" and things will get a bit easier.

So for my piece for The Paper Nest Dolls this week, I used the same image as my last PND post, but I wanted to make her a little grungy, more something that the younger generation might like.

I have been looking forward to trying the Stampendous Encrusted kits, but haven't found any yet, however, Michael's Recollections brand has some Encrusted Jewel kits that are very similar. Unfortunately, they didn't have the black kit that I wanted, but I used my regular black embossing powder, some fine black glitter, and the mica chips from the pink kit. I think it turned out great. Of course more practice is always good :)

Friday, November 21, 2014

I recently started my collection of Magnolia stamps, and to be honest, for a long time, I didn't really like the looks of them. But, let me tell ya,. they really grow on you! Now I am totally in love with Magnolia stamps, and here is a retired one that I've used to create a winter wishes card.

Retired image from Magnolia

This was a super-fun image to color, I just wish I knew the name of it. If you happen to know the name, please leave me a comment!

Retired image from Magnolia

I colored her with my fabulous Prismacolor Pencils and I also used my Wink of Stella Clear Gold glitter pen, and my Gelly Roll white pen:

Hair: PC1069, 1072, 1076
Skin: PC927, 1081, 939
Socks: PC938, 1061
Pajamas: PC936, 1088, 1027
I used Prang (because it is a harder pencil, which I like to use for the finer details) to outline the facial features. The bench she sits on was done with PC1076, and the blue around the oval with colored with the same colors as her pajamas. I also used the Gelly Roll pen to put in the falling snow and snowflakes. The Wink of Stella I used to highlight the lace on her pajamas, and also just around the outside of the blue oval as well as around the very edges of the die cut.

I know I told you that I finally worked up the nerve to play with some images from The East Wind. Here is another one I colored on vellum, called Aurora Daisy. I am having way too much fun :P Just a super quick post to show it off!

Monday, November 17, 2014

This week, for Quick Creations, I created a card with Some Odd Girl's Rapunzel clear stamp. She is a gorgeous image to color with her long flowing hair. I also experimented with stamping a background, and some new colors.

Some Odd Girl "Rapunzel"

I have always like working with turquoise colors, and usually I lean towards the blue tones. So, this time I decided to try the green tones, and am I ever glad I did! I love this color combination! I used everything from my stash, cardstock, ink, dies, and bling. And I also tried embossing a patterned background with a stamp and matching chalk ink. I really love how this card turned out, and I hope you do too!

Thank you for visiting :) If you would like to purchase this clear stamp image, you can find it here at Noelle Martin's online store: Quick Creations. Noelle also hosts a monthly challenge on her blog, so please come and join us! We would love to see your creative side!

Saturday, November 15, 2014

I stumbled across these designs on Etsy a while back, and was a little (ok, a LOT) intimidated by them. They are so fabulous, I figured, no way could I even attempt them. I saw them more and more on FB and on other challenge sites, and as I became more confident with my coloring, I decided I wanted to give them a try. But I procrastinated, lol of course, and then all of a sudden I see this Youtube video of the designer (Unky) speed coloring her "Aurora Maple" image. Let me tell you, I fell in love with the image and just had to try her.

I contacted Unky via FB as I fell in love with the hair color! I asked if she would tell me what colors she used on the hair. I have tried to come up with a red hair combination many times, and it never seemed to work out right. Unky shared her colors with me (thank you so much Unky!) and I am still loving this color combination :)

This is my second attempt at this image. I loved the first attempt, it was on vellum, but alas...the stars aligned to conspire against me and she was dropped on the floor and scratched (boo :( ). So, of course, I did her over again :)

I colored her with my Prismacolor Premiere Pencils, on Xpressit paper. This is not the greatest paper for colored pencils...lol...it doesn't have enough tooth to it. Normally I would use the regular 110lb bright white card stock from Staples. Wonderful for colored pencils :)

Here are the colors I have used for Aurora Maple:

Hair: PC1001, 925, 1067

Skin - PC927, 939, 1081

Leaves - PC937, 924, 944, 1032, 1090, 1034

Eyes - PC1097, 911, 1005

Lips - PC1092, 1081, 938, 947

Unky's designs are very unique and one-of-a-kind. You must try them out! You can find her blog here and her Etsy shop here with all her images in digital form. Thanks for visiting!

Friday, November 14, 2014

Wow, what a crazy week it has been! Nikky Hall decided to shut down the Polkadoodle Digi Queens DT, what a shock for all of us! But I am so excited to tell you that I am now on the Polkadoodles Challenge Design Team! And I am so very happy about this. I love working with Nikky's designs :)

So, for my first project on the challenge team, I used the Octavia Best Friends image, which you can find here. I had a great time coloring this image. The hair, the HAIR! I loved every minute of it, and I want to try her with all different hair and eye colors! Now, just to find the time :P

Octavia Best Friends by Polkadoodles

I decided to put her in a shadowbox frame, and I'm really glad I did. The challenge for this round is CAS. Well, I think I covered that, even though it's really not my forte......but what's a challenge without a challenge, right?

Octavia Best Friends by Polkadoodles

I colored her on vellum, with my Prismacolor Pencils in the following colors:

Monday, November 10, 2014

Hello everyone! I have a new project for The Paper Nest Dolls today, as well as some sad news. Which would you want to hear first? The happy news or the sad news? Well, my thought is to give you the sad news first, then I can end this post on a good note :)

First, you may know this already, but Christine has dissolved her CC Designs Digi Divas DT. Sad, this was the first design team I was accepted for, and I love her Swiss Pixie and Sugarplum images. Second, Nikky has also dissolved her digi queen design team for Polkadoodles :( Double sad, I absolutely adore her Pretty Sweet Collection. Sigh. Ok. Now that that is over with, let's get on with the good stuff. I have applied for the Whimsy Stamps DT and I am really hoping to get on that team. I am a HUGE Wee stamps fan.

Here is the good stuff :)

Ellie with Sign by The Paper Nest Dolls

I had to ask Christine Paperdolls if I could cut an image in half, lol. Wanted to be sure it was ok, before I actually did it. Good thing she's easy going :) I made this funky-fold card with black card stock, and matted it with my own handmade patterned paper :) That was a lot of fun to make, but it did take me all evening to do. I stamped the butterflies first, and then used my Stampin' Up Stamp'n'Write markers and my Prismacolor Pencils to color them in. The ribbon and dies are from my stash.

Ellie with Sign by The Paper Nest Dolls

I usually keep track of the colors I use to complete the image, but I totally messed that up this week, lol, oh well. Next time I will remember, as usual. This is a sweet image from The Paper Nest Dolls and is available in rubber stamp form. Please join us bi-weekly for The Paper Nest Dolls challenge over on the blog, here. You can purchase Christine's wonderful rubber stamps here. Did you know that Christine and her husband manufacture these stamps right there at home and mail them out regularly? Wow, now that's dedication. Hee hee, wait till you see what's coming soon from Christine :) And that's all you're gonna get out of me :)
See you next time!

Thursday, November 6, 2014

Who doesn't want to conquer all in the pursuit of happiness? Well, I may have found some of mine in the wonderful images I get to color and create with. This week for Quick Creations, I created a card using Santoro Mirabelle's "Pursuit of Happyness" clear stamp set. The lines for these clear stamps are fabulously thin, and they would have worked out beautifully, if not for the paper I decided to try...or maybe its my embossing buddy, not sure which. If you figure it out, please, let me know!

Santoro's Mirabelle : "Pursuit of Happyness"

I again decided to make this a clean and simple card, to show off the image more :) That being said, if you look in the closeup picture, you can see that some of the embossed lines did not adhere to the kraft paper I chose to create with :( Still looks fine, but of course, I will always notice it.

Santoro's Mirabelle : "Pursuit of Happyness"

Of course, I colored up with my Prismacolor pencils in the following colors:

Hope you enjoy her as much as I do. If you are looking to purchase this stamp set, you can get them on a pre-order through Noelle Martin at Quick Creations. Noelle has a great online shop full of stamps and supplies, and she is by far the nicest person you may meet :)

Tuesday, November 4, 2014

OK, I think this might be my most favourite Polkadoodles' image yet. This beauty is called "Shannon" and you can find her on the Polkadoodles online store here. She is so sweet, and reminds me of my childhood in British Columbia, Canada. We would spend a couple weeks each summer close to the shore of the Pacific Ocean, sometimes even on an island. What fond memories I have of those summers: my sister and I playing at low tide, and finding many beautiful shells and sand dollars. Great times, great times.

Shannon by Polkadoodles

Shannon was a joy to color, and she would be great practice for those learning to color clothing...that long flowing dress was so much fun. Thank you Nikky, for bringing back some awesome memories :)

Monday, November 3, 2014

Hello everyone, today I am sharing a card I made for the Quick Creations Design Team, using Elizabeth Bell's Thoughtful Breeze clear stamp. She is so sweet, and Noelle was so kind to send her to me. I tried something a little different, I heat embossed the image with white embossing powder. It gives such a cool effect, however, as you are about to find out, there are limitations on how this can be done. But first, let's see the card :)

Thoughtful Breeze by Elizabeth Bell

I decided to make this a clean and simple card, to let the image be the very focal point. One of the considerations I discovered while making this piece, is that the lines of the stamp need to be very fine, so that you don't lose the details in the embossing. As you can see, a lot of details were lost in this image :( I still think she turned out ok, but in the future, I will pay closer attention as to which stamps I use for this technique.

Thoughtful Breeze by Elizabeth Bell

I colored this image with my Prismacolor Premiere pencils in the following colors:

Please consider joining Noelle Martin of Quick Creations for her monthly Challenge, this month's challenge is Fall or Halloween! You can find the challenge blog here. And a link to Noelle's awesome online store is here.

Friday, October 31, 2014

Hello ladies and gents! Today I am bringing back some of my favorite projects in my submission for the Tombow Design Team Call.

First, my latest for The Paper Nest Dolls Challenge Team: I used the Fan Dancer Avery image, and combined her with some digital papers from Baer Design Studio. I fussy-cut a few of the paper elements, distressed the edges and glued them in layers onto the card. I also used my gold Pentel gel pen to highlight around some of the papers. I also glued the bow (strung with some beads) and rhinestones onto the card to give it more depth. The image is colored with my Prismacolor Premiere Pencils.

Fan Dancer Avery by The Paper Nest Dolls

My second project is one that I also did this month, for the Whimsy Stamps Design Team Call. I used Rowan Fairy by Sylvia Zet to create this easel card. I used some butterfly die cuts, as well as flowers, ribbon, lace and pearls from my stash.

Rowan Fairy by Sylvia Net for Whimsy Stamps

For my third piece (a DIY), I am including a tutorial I did using Rainy Day Birgitta by C.C. Designs.
This tutorial is for a very basic card fold, the top-fold A2. Good for a beginner, this tutorial shows you how to create the card from the beginning, in photographs and written text. I created this card and envelope with cardstock, which I decorated myself using a stencil, ink, and my Prismacolor Premiere Pencils. I used vellum and ink for the sentiment and included flowers and ribbon as well from my stash.

Rainy Day Birgitta by C.C. Designs

As this is a very picture-heavy tutorial, I have included it in a link here, for you to see.

I am currently on 3 Design Teams and I have included their completion dates as well:

Thank you for taking the time to review my submission, and please be assured that I very much enjoy this part of my creativity, and I always put everything I have into my projects. I have used Tombow Mono adhesive in these projects; I find the adhesive to be strong and quick bonding, and I love the precision tip!

I chose to use Fan Dancer Avery, one of the new releases from The Paper Nest Dolls. I love this image, so sweet and original. I used beads, ribbon and bling from my stash. I also downloaded the Chinese-themed paper from Baer Design Studio, such gorgeous digital papers! The sentiment reads "Joy" in Chinese, and all the bits of scribbling in gold are done with my Pentel Gold Slicci gel pen.

Fan Dancer Avery by The Paper Nest Dolls

I colored her up with my ever wonderful Prismacolor Premiere Pencils in the following colors:

She really is a joy to create with :) Please consider joining us for our bi-weekly challenges over on The Paper Nest Dolls Challenge blog. And if you would like to create with this sweet image, you can find her here :) Thank you for stopping by!

Wednesday, October 22, 2014

So, the challenge this week for C.C. Designs is non-traditional Halloween colors...o boy...am I in trouble....
To put it mildly..lol...I am NOT a fan of Halloween. However, one must do what one must do. And I struggled with what colors to use. I wanted to use purple, but, alas...purple is a Halloween color. So instead, I settled on PINK! Whodathunkit! A pink Halloween card. Well, I don't mind it, but I'll let you be the judge:

Halloween Birgitta rubber stamp by C.C. Designs

Ok, so I had an idea in my head when I first started coloring this image, but it required at least two of the exact same image, colored the exact same way, lol. And I am pleased to say that for once the idea in my head worked out exactly the way I wanted it to in real life! Yay! I used the Halloween Birgitta rubber stamp from C.C. Designs. After coloring her twice, I punched her out in 2 different sizes of circles and matted them all with black cardstock. Then I put them together, kind of like a jigsaw puzzle, but at the same time, kind of like a game of Mahjong, lol. They are pieced together and layered at the same time. This was a fun project, and I hope Christine likes it as much as I do ;)

Halloween Birgitta rubber stamp by C.C. Designs

I colored her with my Prismacolor Premiere and Koh-I-Nor pencils in the following colors:

Non traditional Halloween colors, come on, if I can do it so can you! You'll find the new challenge posted here. I am looking forward to seeing your projects in every color EXCEPT purple, green, orange, etc. LOL! See you there!

Tuesday, October 21, 2014

I am so excited to try out for the Whimsy Stamps Design Team. I adore their stamp images, and the stamp quality is fabulous. If you've seen my previous post using "Young Spring Fairy", you will understand what I am saying :) The lines made by these stamps is nice and fine, it is almost like no lines coloring! They are so detailed too.

For this project I chose to color "Rowan Fairy", designed by Sylvia Zet. Sylvia's designs are by far some of the most realistic looking fairies I have seen yet. Some of my other Whimsy Stamp designer favorites? Crissy Armstrong and Mi Ran! Of course all of the Whimsy designers are fabulous, these are just 3 of my absolute favorites.

OK! Let's get on with the show!

Whimsy Stamps "Rowan Fairy" Designed by Sylvia Zet

This is a 5 x 7 easel card, using many elements from my stash, including cardstock, adhesive pearls, dies, flowers, lace, and ribbon. I colored her with my Prismacolor Premiere pencils in the following colors:

I just love this little fairy. She is so sweet and dainty looking, that I just couldn't help but create this piece in dainty colors. I even looked up Rowan Berries on the internet to see what color they actually are, and this is the closest I could get. I am very proud of this piece, and will have MUCH trouble sending her off to a new home...I almost want to frame her.

Along with this card, I would like to showcase two others that I am particularly proud of. One is a DT piece I completed this month for the Quick Creations Design Team, using Young Spring Fairy by Whimsy Stamp designer Crissy Armstrong: